Manchester United on the edge of some kind of glory…
It all comes down to this. The success or failure of Manchester United’s season hinges on its 63rd and final game – a final few connected with the club would have embraced with any degree of enthusiasm until the last few months. That enthusiasm has once again waned has everything to do with events in Manchester and nothing to do with the occasion
Many still turn up their noses, with mere participation in the Champions League seemingly all that matters. But this is still a European final taking place in Stockholm. Unless you are Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, who are so very far ahead of any club in England, you are not in a position to be sniffy about which trophies fill your cabinet. And though United might prefer the trappings of the Champions League, Wednesday offers an opportunity to claim the only silverware they have never won.
It is a debate that has raged in the Mailbox: if United beat Ajax, would you rather have had their season, with a sixth-placed finish in the Premier League and two trophies, or that of runners-up Tottenham? Or even Manchester City or Liverpool?
But would anyone really choose to be potless?
Of course, until kick-off, it remains a huge ‘if’. If Ajax triumph, then however sweet the feeling of winning the EFL Cup final, it will be almost impossible to argue that Jose Mourinho’s first season has been anything but a failure. Strides have certainly been made, but any progress has lacked the tangibility to meet many people’s expectations. And the manager is well aware that at stake at the Friends Arena is more than just the verdict for the season past; next year’s campaign will be shaped on Wednesday’s result too.
It is a huge summer for United and particularly Mourinho. United completing their trophy set is a lovely romantic notion but it is not much of a sell in the marketplace. Mourinho’s recruitment and retainment plans largely hang on whether the Red Devils can offer Champions League football.
Antoine Griezmann, United’s supposed top target, said on Monday that his future should be sorted within a fortnight and that he rated the likelihood of moving to Old Trafford as 60 per cent – hardly coincidental that it’s roughly the same chance many give United against Ajax.
Griezmann – along with the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Kylian Mbappe and a fair proportion of the seemingly hundreds of top players to be linked with United – can afford to be picky. Last summer showed, with the recruitment of Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, that United can still tempt the big hitters, but anything longer than a one-season absence from the Champions League would certainly make Mourinho’s recruitment a far harder task.
The manager has been given a rough ride in the media for United’s Premier League failings and Mourinho is certainly fair game after talking unequivocally of targeting the title. But fans have largely seen the bigger picture beyond the many draws and staggering wastefulness in front of goal.
During his year in charge at Old Trafford, Mourinho has recruited extremely well, shaken up some of the drifters in the squad and got his team playing a more expansive, fluid brand of football than his predecessor. Admittedly, that it not a high bar, but ‘Jose’s playing the way that United should’, according to the fans, and for the most part, that’s true.
But patience will be rather more thin next season should the faults identified this season not be quickly rectified next term. Cutting out the profligacy in front of goal provides a simple solution to the dreadful run of home draws but two wins from ten games against the top five and only one goal scored against those opponents away from home illustrates a defensive urge that Mourinho must try harder to fight.
It is easier to be less cautious with better players, which highlights why the Europa League final is so important to the manager for reasons beyond the immediate gratification of a shiny new trophy; but that gratification is what we all seek when the campaign begins.
If Mourinho satisfies that urge in Stockholm, then United fans and the manager should first bask in the success as an achievement in its own right rather than just a step on the journey so somewhere else. Stop and admire the view because it could be beautiful.
Ian Watson